Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
by gohansfan
Summary: A mishap leads to Lily Evans becoming a toddler and moments with Sirius and James as they try to find a countercurse. Some LJ fluff and a song that suits Sirius... Oneshot


Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter or "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"

Author's note: I was bored one night and decided to revise this a little bit—maybe make it an easier and better read. Enjoy!

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Lily Evans was bored. It was the Easter Holidays, and she was stuck at Hogwarts without any friends to hang out with and all her roommates gone. To try and entertain herself, she had decided to patrol the halls like she would on a normal weekend as a part of her Head Girl duties. She was more strolling around conversing with paintings than anything—there was really no reason to patrol with most of the students gone. She sighed heavily, feeling regret that she hadn't been able to see her parents during the break, but with all the stress of school, she just hadn't been in the mood to deal with her sister.

If she was honest with herself, she was actually hoping to run into a trouble-maker. She was itching for some sort of drama. She would even appreciate catching a couple kissing in a corner somewhere, for goodness sake! Yeah, it would be awkward that night, and the couple would be shooting embarrassed looks at her for weeks afterwards, but anything was better than the level of boredom she was currently in.

Lily was just about to take a turn around a corner when a beam of red light shot out in front of her and exploded a statue standing to her right. Lily fell to the ground, covering her head from the bits of falling statue and whatever other curses might be shot her way. She knew there were people who didn't like her much—it was one of the pitfalls of being Head Girl and catching people at the wrong times breaking a school rule, but what could she do about that? This however, was ridiculous! But then, maybe it wasn't about her at all? She chanced a glance around the corner, taking care to position herself so she could quickly counterattack if need be.

She groaned as she realized who the perpetrator was. Snape and James were dueling each other. Was there time to take back that wish for a little excitement and make it a little more specific as to exclude this particular activity? Lily rolled her eyes as she stood up and took a breath. The quickest way to end something like this would just be to stun Snape. If she stunned Potter, Snape would just start cursing her—verbally or magically, it didn't matter. Potter would be offended she stopped the duel, but the worst he would do would be to start hitting on her, which was a long shot because he'd actually been more of a gentleman lately than he had her entire Hogwarts career. Yes, stunning Snape was the safest bet.

Snape suddenly moved into a prime position for Lily to perform her curse and she raised her wand to perform the spell. She just wasn't quick enough. Snape suddenly ducked just as James shot a curse, and Lily was unfortunately standing directly in its path. Lily gasped as the curse hit her and the last thing she saw before falling unconscious was James's horrified face.

Sirius Black was back at the boy's dorm in Gryffindor Tower, hunched over a piece of parchment, trying to figure out the last details to complete a prank he was to perform that week with James. James had set out to find a few of the ingredients for the potion required, but he was taking a little longer than Sirius had expected him to.

Sirius looked up as the bedroom door slammed open, then seemed to shut itself.

"I didn't think you'd have to use the cloak," Sirius smirked, looking back down at the parchment.

"I didn't for the ingredients, but I ran into Snape in the corridor and there was a little accident," James replied, throwing the cloak off of himself quite clumsily because of his burden.

"I hope you left the git unconscious somewhere." Sirius replied, scratching out a line on the parchment and making a notation over it.

"I did. I just…well…Lily showed up."

"You wanted to avoid getting into trouble? No, let me guess—she saw you, got furious, and you had to use the cloak to escape with your life?"

"No. Worse. I hit her with a spell."

Sirius's head shot up in shock, "Say again? You didn't hurt the girl, did you?"

"I don't know. Come see for yourself."

"What?" Sirius stood up for a better look and discovered that the burden James had been carrying was in no way ingredients for their next prank. It was in fact, a girl, but…

"She's shrunk! Oh man, you shrunk her? She's going to kill you James…" Sirius snorted, attempting to suppress his laughter, but not succeeding.

Lily Evans had indeed, "shrunk." The thing was—she had not gotten shorter—she had gotten younger. Instead of the pretty girl with average height, they had a toddler on their hands. A toddler who happened to be sleeping and sucking her thumb at the moment.

"Don't laugh! What am I going to do, Sirius? I had seen that curse in one of dad's books at home, and I don't know the counter-curse! I didn't care about that with Snape, but when he ducked and Lily was standing behind him... What if it's permanent? I am so stupid!" James paced in front of the bed, borderline hysterical.

"Calm down. I bet if you just—heaven forbid I'm actually saying this, but Remus would, and he's always right—I bet if you just go down to the library and look a bit, you'll find some kind of counter-curse," Sirius grinned.

"Fine, fine, I'll do whatever it takes, but what if she wakes up and doesn't know where she is?" James stopped pacing, stepping in front of the small girl and shakily running a hand through his hair.

"Then I'll stay and watch her. Bring some books up here if you're so nervous about it." Sirius shoved his friend out the door. "If worse comes to worse, you can always play the overachiever charms student when Flitwick goes to the classroom tonight—you know he always likes to be there for an hour in the evenings to get ready for the next class and answer any questions students may have."

"Okay…just…don't leave, okay? I'll be right back." James ran off, nearly tripping as he rushed out the door.

Sirius grinned again and went to examine the results of James's curse. It seemed that James's frantic whispering had been loud enough to wake the girl. She stayed in the same position as before, still crouched in a little ball with her thumb in her mouth, but her eyes were open and she watched Sirius as he approached.

"Lily? Do you remember me?" Sirius sat on the bed besides the girl, who twisted to keep watching him. She shook her head slowly to the question. Sirius was surprised—most toddlers would cringe away from teenagers, and some would start crying for their mothers. Lily didn't look afraid at all.

"How old are you, Lily?" Sirius grinned, unable to believe he was really asking a question like this.

He nearly laughed as Lily held up three fingers. "Really? Can you talk?"

She nodded, taking her thumb out of her mouth and sitting up. Sirius thought she was going to demonstrate how well she could talk, but she stood and shakily made her way over to the boy, nearly falling twice. He held his hand out to steady her, not knowing what she wanted. Lily reached him and clambered into his lap, then looked up at him.

Sirius grinned again, "Well, hello there."

Lily smiled sweetly and reached for his hand. He gave it to her, and she held her hand up to his palm. Her small hand was roughly a third the size of his own, and he chuckled. "Man, James really did shrink you…"

"What's your name?" Lily asked, watching his face again.

"My name? Oh, it's Sirius." He grinned. "I'm named after a star in the sky."

"Sirius?" Lily repeated. "I know a song for name!" She clapped her hands excitedly.

"Huh?"

"I know a song for name!" Lily declared again, obviously expecting something.

"A song for name?" Sirius repeated. What was she talking about? "Well, sing it for me, then."

Lily clutched Sirius's shirt and bowed her head, suddenly shy. She began to sing slowly.

"_Twinkle, twinkle little star, _

_how I wonder where you are._

_up above the world so high, _

_like a diamond in the sky,_

_twinkle, twinkle little star,_

_how I wonder where you are."_

She finished and looked back up at Sirius again, smiling.

"That was super!" Sirius smiled. Now he understood. When she'd said a song for name, she had meant that his name had reminded her of a song. He had never heard the song, so it must be a muggle one.

The door burst open again, and James came in with a huge stack of books. "I think these will work…oh…she's up?"

Lily watched James curiously, but when his attention came upon her, she shirked away, hiding her face in Sirius's shirt.

"I think she's shy!" Sirius laughed, watching James's astonished expression. "You probably scared her, running in like that."

"Yeah…I guess…does she not remember anything?"

"No, she thinks she's three."

"Oh."

"So, did you have any luck?" Sirius asked, while looking curiously at the stack of books James sat down on the floor, while patting Lily's back.

"I don't know…I just went to the row of counter-curses and got all the books there. Madame Pince didn't ask any questions, so…oh, hey there." James smiled shakily as Lily braved a glance at him. She smiled back and promptly hid in Sirius's shirt again.

Sirius laughed, "She's playing hide-and-go-seek. Here, do you want to hold her?" He picked Lily up off his lap gently and held her out to James. She protested by keeping her hold on Sirius's shirt and shouting "No!" but Sirius ignored that.

"I don't…I don't know anything about kids…" James eyed the small girl wearily, "Do you think she'll remember all this once she's back to normal? That is…if we ever…"

"I bet she'll forget everything. I don't know anything about kids either—she just crawled into my lap and sang me a song. Here—take her."

James bit his lip nervously and took Lily from Sirius. She stopped protesting immediately and glowered at Sirius, not noticing James. "I think you're on her bad list now, Sirius…" James grinned shakily, settling Lily down in his lap.

"Nah, she's just pouting." Sirius stuck his tongue out at the girl playfully, laughing as she did it back. "You know…this would be kind of weird if you ended up marrying the girl—you can tell your kids you ended up taking care of their toddler mother in 7th year." He laughed.

"She doesn't even like me." James sighed, looking down at Lily. She finally looked up at James and stared at him. "Um…hey?" James said nervously.

Lily watched James a little more before saying a small "Hi" and spontaneously wrapping her little arms around James's neck.

"Friendly little thing, isn't she?" Sirius laughed.

"Yeah…I guess…" James grinned, obviously pleased.

"You play with her a bit and keep her occupied—I'll go ahead and start looking through these books. Okay with you?" Sirius grabbed a few of the books within his reach and flopped back on the bed.

"Yeah, fine…thanks." James muttered, occupied now that Lily had finished her hug and wanted to play patty-cake. Thankfully, James's mother had used a few muggle methods with her children when they were young, and he was playing the game to her satisfaction.

Sirius watched the game a little longer; grinning, and then settled back to do some research.

Sirius spent the entire day alternating between searching through the books and taking breaks to play with Lily. James played with her the entire time, never even looking at the books, and Sirius made no complaints—it was probably the most time of voluntary attention he'd ever received from the girl, whom he'd had a crush on since 4th year.

She really was a happy toddler—she only cried once throughout the day, when she'd bumped her head. James was quick to comfort her and she was soon laughing again. Lily was happy to play with Sirius when he took his breaks, but it soon became clear that James was her favorite among the two. James had no problem with that—he was clearly fascinated with her and eager to give the attention she demanded.

There was nothing in the books, and when the time came, Sirius had to force James to part with Lily to get the counter-curse from Flitwick—James would be less suspicious than Sirius would. He was fast about it, eager to spend as much time with Lily as possible. James was happy to report that Flitwick had known the counter-curse, but he also suggested they wait a little while to perform it. His excuse was the fact that, despite the fact that it was Easter weekend and most students were gone, there was still a chance of bumping into someone in the halls, cloak or no cloak. It would be better to do it at night.

The time came too fast for James, and he performed the counter-curse with no trouble. Lily's clothes had resized with her, so there was no embarrassment. She had fallen asleep from the spell again, and James carried her gently to the girl's dorm. Sirius stayed behind out of exhaustion. James sighed as he lay the beautiful girl down on the bed and pulled the covers over her. It had been a great day for him—he had been able to be close to her the entire day without any of the usual tension, even if she had been a toddler.

James took a risk and reached out to finger her hair, brushing the silky strands out of her face. He was careful, but the action must have woken her, because when he moved his hand away, he found her watching him.

"I'm sorry…" He whispered.

She smiled sleepily at him, and said softly, "I wish you would be as nice as you were today all the time…then you wouldn't be so bad…"

"You remember?" His eyes widened in astonishment.

"Mmm-hmmm…." Lily smiled. "Thank you for not exploiting it and for taking such good care of me…" She yawned sleepily and closed her eyes, "Tell Sirius the song suits him…"

James listened as her breathing became more even and he smiled, "Thank _you_, Lily. And goodnight."

Back at the dorm, Sirius stared at the ceiling as he waited for sleep to come. He kept thinking about the curious events of the day and smiled as he remembered the song Lily had sung for his name. He began singing softly,

"_Twinkle, twinkle little star,_

_how I wonder where you are._

_Up above the world so high,_

_like a diamond in the sky,_

_twinkle, twinkle, little star,_

_how I wonder where you are…"_


End file.
